Black Horizon Read Online Free PDF Page A

Deepwater Horizon spill, and that was with the best equipment and most highly trained response teams in the world. Who knew how long it would take the Cubans to get this one under control? Fifty thousand barrels a day had to go somewhere.
    “I need you to take me to Tamiami Airport,” said Andie.
    Her phone call was over, and Jack didn’t have to ask if it had been work related. A flight out of Tamiami always meant one thing: a destination dictated by the FBI, unknown even to Andie, never to be known by Jack.
    “Today?”
    “Sorry, yes. The start date for my assignment has been moved up.”
    “But you cleared both the wedding and the honeymoon two months ago.”
    “That was then. The situation has changed.”
    The situation. That was as much as Jack would ever hear about one of Andie’s undercover operations. This time, however, he’d seen enough Cantonese-language instructional CDs around the house to figure out that there was a China connection.
    “Could this possibly have anything to do with the fact that the exploded oil rig is owned by the Chinese?”
    He glanced in Andie’s direction, but she was gazing out toward the ocean, showing him the back of her head, refusing even to acknowledge the question.
    “That’s what I thought you’d say.”
    Northbound traffic was suddenly moving again. Jack punched the gas to close the gap between him and the pickup truck ahead, but he’d accelerated too quickly. Andie suddenly didn’t look so good. She reached into the backseat and grabbed the ice bucket they’d borrowed from the resort. Her head went down between her knees, and those rare birds—the September geese of the Florida Keys—were honking again. Jack reached over and laid his hand between her shoulder blades. Finally she sat up, her eyes closing as her head rolled back against the headrest.
    “You might want to take that bucket with you.”
    “You might want to wear Kevlar,” she said as her left fist catapulted across the console and nailed him squarely in the chest.
    “Damn, girl! That hurt!”
    “Good,” she said, managing a little smile. “It was supposed to.”

Chapter 6
    J ack parked along the road outside Tamiami Airport and watched from his open convertible as the jet cleared the runway and disappeared into the clouds.
    The first leg of Andie’s trip was under her actual credentials, a commercial flight to a destination that had nothing to do with her assignment. Leg two was where Andie Henning would vanish, and only after leg three or beyond would she settle into her new community under an assumed identity. The abrupt end to their honeymoon was a bummer, and even though Jack had married her with eyes open, the morning sickness had put an entirely different spin on her open-ended assignment.
    Next time I see you, our baby could be kicking.
    Jack drove away, not sure where he was headed. It wasn’t easy for a sole practitioner to clear his calendar, but Jack had blocked out the entire week, and he didn’t especially feel like going into the office. He called Theo, who was his usual sympathetic self.
    “Bitch.”
    “It’s her job,” said Jack. “She’s not a bitch.”
    “No, I meant you , bitch. Looks like we’re a couple of honeymooners.”
    “I knew I shouldn’t have called you.”
    “You totally called the right guy,” said Theo. “We’re going to Key West.”
    “To do what?”
    “To stand up for the fish and birds and everything else that is about to be covered in oil.”
    “How very social-minded of you.”
    “Not really. Journalists are a bunch of drunks. Business is about to explode at my buddy’s bar on Duval Street. He needs a hand.”
    “I hate to rain on your sudden conversion from nature lover to capitalist pig, but they’re shutting down the Keys. You can’t get to Key West.”
    “My buddy will get us through.”
    “How?”
    “Dude, trust me.”
    The last time Jack had done so, his classic 1966 Mustang with pony interior was reduced to a heap of